books I’ve read in 2014

[emik]

Originally published at Little Stories of V.. You can comment here or there.

In the end of 2013 I realised that during my first year of freelance I read unnaturally small quantity of books. I was not commuting daily to the office and didn’t have a habit of reading cozily at home. While you do freelance work you home is your office and you always have so much things to do there besides cleaning and cooking which go on top. I still suck with reading-at-the-sofa habit, but I set myself on a plan to read at least 24 books in 2014. Two books per month. I could do it.

I also promised myself to keep a list of what I read. Because I realised that life is so fast that some books got lost in memory or in folds of time. The fucked up thing that it doesn’t mean that the lost book was a bad book. And I hate to forget things I enjoy.

I managed to read 27 books. Maybe I forgot to write down 1 or 2 books. I also didn’t put on the list those long current readings which you read in small bits from time to time. Because you can’t read them in one piece, your mind will explode if you do. I think I will make an additional list of those.

So here it comes.

Books I read in 2014:

1. Stephen Chbosky “Perks of being a wallflower”
2. Victor Hugo “Les Miserables” (book 1)
3. Наталия Аникина “Кошка, которая умела плакать” (книга 1, книга 2) (Russian author, read in Russian)
4. Anthony Martignetti “Beloved Demons”
5. Anthony Martignetti “Lunatic heroes”
6. Philip Pullman “The ruby in the smoke”
7. Елена Хаецкая “Мракобес” (Russian author, read in Russian)
8. Peter Hoeg “Borderliners” / Питер Хег “Условно пригодные” (read in Russian)
9. Mike Rohde “The Sketchnote Handbook: The Illustrated Guide to Visual Note Taking”
10. Austen Kleon “Show your work”
11. F. Scott Fitzgerald “The Great Gatsby”
12.  George Fraser “Flashman”
13. Reinhold Messner “The Crystal Horizon: Everest - The First Solo Ascent” / Рейнхольд Месснер “Хрустальный горизонт” (read in Russian)
14. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett “Good omens”
15. Susan Collins “Hunger Games” (all three books, the first book I listened as audio book)
16. Марина Москвина “Учись видеть” (Russian author, read in Russian)
17. Bernhard Schlink “The Reader” / Берхард Шлинк “Чтец” (read in Russian)
18. Mark Helprin “Memoir from Antproof Case” (read in Russian)
19. Paul Berna “Le Cheval sans tête” / Поль Берна “Лошадка без головы” (read in Russian)
20. Stephen King “Carrie” (read in Russian)
21. Amand Palmer “The art of asking”
22. Philip Pullman “Once upon a time in the North”
23. HP Lovecraft “The Call of Cthulhu”, “Dagon”, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” (audio)
24. Terry Pratchett “The Colour of magic” (audio)
25. George Mann “Ghosts of Manhattan”
26. Дмитрий Глуховский “Метро 2033” (Russian author, read in Russian)
27. Marcos Mateu-Mestre “Framed ink”
28. Феликс Шайнбергер “Альбом ваших идей”

Long time reads:

1. Jurgen Wolff “Your Creative Writing Masterclass”
2.  Clarissa Pinkola Estés “Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype”
3. Hayley Campbell “The art of Neil Gaiman”
4. Susan Sontag, David Rieff “As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980”
5. Stepehn Kind “On Writing”
6. Grete Weitz “Run your first marathon”
7. Mark Williams “Mindfullness: A Practical guide to peace in a frantic world”

Current reads which I started in 2014 and didn’t finish yet:

1. Mikhail Boulgakov “Master and Margarita” (reading in Russian)
2. Ksenia Anske “Rosehead” (just finished it, so it is the first one I read in 2015, I highly recommend it btw)
3. Neil Gaiman “Fortunately the Milk”
4. Alan Moore “Watchmen”

Mostly I read in English because translating is a subtle art and we seem to lack of good translators today in Russia. My faith is a bit restored though, but I am still quite sceptical. I try to be more open minded. Besides I got interested in Russian classics and contemporary writers. Enough of being so snobbish.

If you got curious about any book in my lists you are welcome to poke me and ask. I am too lazy and hungry to read further.

Also you are welcome to throw books titles you read and like into my face. It will be highly appreciated!